Lyndon Johnson And The Vietnam War

President Dwight Eisenhower conditionally pledged to support South Vietnam’s new nation in 1955. In the time period between 1955-1961 the United States pumped seven billion dollars in aid so that Vietnam would not “go over quickly” like a “row of dominoes” (McNamara 31). In the next 6 years Vietnam would cost America billions of dollars, thousands of lives, and the disaffection of much of the United States public. Yet in the end, South Vietnam would fall to the North less than 2 years after the United States military involvement ceased.

America has gone through high and lows as a country, but overall we overcome and grow and use our history to shape out future. When John F. Kennedy died, Lyndon B. Johnson took over as president and was at first liked and favored that he came back for a real term after the term he took over after JFK died. He then changed, and brought many Americans to fight in Vietnam and sacrifice their lives for a Vietnamese war, and was greatly looked down upon for this. Lyndon B. Johnson politically and socially with his Great Society and changed during his time as President of the United States of America.

Nixon tried to achieve peace with honour by shifting US policy with “The Nixon Doctrine”, this meant nations were now responsible for their own defence. Bragg, a renown historian,

Spain had a lot of power behind her to begin with and then she ended up falling because she went into war and a very young vice president came into the White House because the president (Mckinley) was shot and killed on a hike. Most Americans wanted freedom but ended up not getting it in the end. When Theodore Roosevelt was part of the Rough Riders, he commented that ‘Nine-tenths of the men were better horsemen then I was, and probably two- thirds were better shots, but no one could command them as I could.’

The history of the Vietnam War had a violent beginning. Before the assassination of President Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson had little to no involvement in the Vietnam conflict. Beforehand the United States had mainly sent supplies and aid to South Vietnam against North Vietnam. After the assassination of both president Kennedy and the President of South Vietnam, the war became inevitable.

Widespread disaster, extreme mobilization, heightened fears and are all characteristics of war. The Vietnam War was a war that spanned almost twenty years, with over a decade of those years involving the United States military forces. During the war, elections so if things aren’t going your country’s way on the battlefront you are going to be on the hot seat. This is exactly what happened for Lyndon B Johnson amidst the Vietnam War. The year was 1968, with the incumbent President, not running for office anymore. The President of the United States was up for grabs and between the Vice President, Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon, in order to gain the upper hand in this election, would sabotage peace talks in Vietnam and end

Grabber: When Lyndon B. Johnson first took over the campaign in Vietnam as president , he experienced backlash from his citizens and officials with his tactics and overall involvement. Roadmap: When President Johnson was moved into office after John F Kennedy’s death, he had to prove to the public he could follow in his footsteps with the pressing issues of Vietnam. His attacks and methods against the communist threat were debated amongst citizens and officials as to whether he was correct in expanding influence in Vietnam, or that he was taking away from the resources America had. President Johnson ultimately decided to back down from the presidency after his term because his public standing started to drop. Nixon then stepped

President Lyndon Johnson asked U.S Congress for permission to increase the U.S military in Indochina, because two U.S destroyers called in that they had been fired on by North Vietnamese forces. President Johnson received authorization to proceed any actions that is necessary to get revenge and to encourage the repairs of security and worldwide peace, he was granted approval when Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The Johnson Administration believed that increasing the U.S military presence in Vietnam was the only answer, the South Vietnamese troops stayed generally ineffective. In supporting South Vietnamese raids and applying a U.S program for the Lao border to disturb supply lines, U.S military started supporting South Vietnamese raids of the North Vietnamese coast. In the Gulf of Tonkin two destroyers by the name of the Maddox and the Turner Joy, were stationed to strengthen these action by The United States Navy. The commander on the Turner Joy reported being attacked by North Vietnamese Patrol boats twice, once on August 2 and the second on August 4. However, doubts later occurred as to whether or not the Turner Joy was attacked. Under those circumstances, Johnson instantly asked permission from Congress to defend U.S militaries in Southeast Asia. The Senate passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution with just two restricting votes, and the House of Representatives passed it collectively. Congress upheld the determination with the supposition that the president

As Nixon witnessed the death toll in Vietnam, he began a process known as Vietnamization. When running for president he told the people he had a secret plan to end the war with Vietnam. After taking office in January 1969, the Vietnam War had been in progress for four years, 31,000 Americans had been killed since action, and the training of South Vietnamese was in the process of being scheduled (Breen, T. H.). Over 540,000 Americans were in Vietnam with no plans of reduction and no progress had been made at the negotiations in Paris, as the United States did not have an exact peace proposal. Nixon and his advisors created a strategy known as Vietnamization, which was a plan to slowly withdraw American combat forces and help prepare South Vietnam

Richard Nixon is one of the most controversial figures in American history. His presidency is remembered most for the Watergate scandal and his subsequent resignation but some of his foreign policies forever altered American foreign diplomacy. One of the major policies that President Nixon was responsible for was changing the nature of the United States relationship with China. He did this by setting into motion covert diplomatic actions and cultural exchanges between the two countries. Nixon’s reasons for improving relationships with the Communist regime was to force the Soviet Union to be more accommodating to American demands

Lyndon Baines Johnson, became President in 1963 after John F Kennedy was assassinated. President Johnson went right in and wanted to polish off the reform what John F Kennedy started, the Civil Right Act. The Civil Right Act was to outlaw discrimination, based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in July 2, 1964. Johnson was given many credits during his presidency and after his presidency. Johnson was partly responsible for the first man to land on the moon (ushistory.org, 2015).In 1969 the United States became the first nation to land a man on the moon. J F Kennedy had this vision of the space programmed. Nevertheless, Johnson also helped with Kennedy vision that it would come to reality, but it didn’t come reality until Johnson left office. Johnson supported a legislative program the ‘Great Society” was the most motivated and an important domestic program that end helping the nation’s (ushistory.org, 2015).

Nixon stated, “In the previous administration, we Americanized the war in Vietnam. In this administration, we are Vietnamizing the search for peace.”

President Richard M. Nixon took responsibility for the Vietnam War as he entered the office in January 20, 1969. He also knew that ending the Vietnam War was essential his success in the presidency. He thought that the American people could give him only one year to end the U.S involvement into the the War, and he also thought that he would succeed during that time. He Believed that his experience in foreign relation's stoutness and his hard work to bring all the military and pressures to North Vietnam. He had Gained Thieu’s adherence to an agreement through letter and envoys, all of the were promising the US military in a event from the North Vietnamese violation also its accords. Both sides understood that this mentt that the recommitment

Another issue that Johnson was involved in during his presidency was the Vietnam War. This took up most of his presidency and was the reason he did not run for the second term. The decisions he made in this war were not entirely wrong but just ruined his reputation entirely. He was ridiculed by the American people for the way he handled this war. However, the real question is, was he even trying to win it? Every time we started to get ahead in the war, he would change the rules.

Richard Nixon, the following President after Johnson, recommended Vietnamization, which removed American soldiers and gave the South Vietnam greater responsibility to fight their war. President Nixon sent American forces to annihilate supply bases of the Communist in Cambodia. In between 1968 to 1973, the struggles were made to end conflict under diplomacy. Later on in January of 1973, the agreements of Vietnamization were reached; the U.S. troops were detached from Vietnam, and prisoners from the U.S were liberated. South Vietnam fully surrendered to the North, which lead to Vietnam being reunited.